Oh Secession Shmacession
The “The United States of America” is taken. Secessionists don’t get to take the nation with them. That’s not how it works.
by Bob Cesca
WASHINGTON, DC – Majorie Taylor Greene is a member of Congress. I wanted to lead with that sentence because her membership in this elite club of 535 politicians illustrates so many of the existential problems facing democracy. It shows how willing some Americans are to line up in support of a shrieking eel just as long as she shrieks the sounds those Americans want to hear.
The problem is: when she says things, they can sometimes resonate beyond just idle blurtings. That’s what concerns me about her endorsement of secession. In case you missed it, Greene said the red states should secede from the blue states because something something woke mob. Later, Sean Hannity also made a case for secession, noting that it would result in:
Much smaller federal government
States fully control public education
States could continue using fossil fuels
One day elections with paper ballots
Law enforcement supported and funded
Sure, the federal government would be smaller – but it wouldn’t be the federal government for the states that seceded. They’d have to start their own government, and good luck with that, morons. By the way, the “The United States of America” is taken. Secessionists don’t get to take the nation with them. That’s not how it works.
Meanwhile, here are a few other things Hannity and Marj should know about secession.
The seceded states would be, by definition, separating from the United States, which means they’d be rejecting its Constitution. They’d also be rejecting the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem – to be clear: completely abandoning the United States, its symbology, and its traditions is far worse than taking a knee during the Anthem. In other words, secession is the most extreme rejection of all things American – the very suggestion of it should be defined as profoundly unpatriotic.
Secession would also lead to the balkanization of America. Once secession occurred, and is thus codified as legal among the separatist states, the newly formed red state nation – say, Confederacy Part Two – would subdivide and subdivide under legalized secession until it was reduced to a collection of municipality-sized nations with zero power to defend itself or establish a viable economy. Or let’s say South Carolina decides to secede from Confederacy Part Two, would the new secessionist government go to war to keep South Carolina as part of its fledgling nation? Maybe. Likewise, the remaining parts of the U.S. might also be hesitant to lend economic support, especially if secession leads to another civil war.
Secession is what you do if you’ve given up. It’s the sweatpants of geo-politics. When they’re no longer capable of working out issues through words and votes, secessionists quit and storm off. It’s the same as chucking a board game across the room as soon as you start to lose. Marjorie Taylor Greene is an unpatriotic quitter. As for Hannity, a proven fraud, who the hell knows what he really believes.
And, weirdly, I’m getting similar vibes from fellow liberals who seem to think it’d be a great idea if the United States were no longer united. Sorry, I know the Republicans are ruining everything, but an endorsement of secession, even if it’s not us doing the seceding, is, at its core, a repudiation of democracy – it screams out that democracy has failed to maintain national cohesion and is therefore flawed. Union and democracy are inextricably linked in that sense.
Lincoln fought the Civil War so fiercely in large part because he knew what the dissolution of the republic would mean for democracy here, around the globe, and deep into the future, leading to the rise of more despots and the end of both liberty and representative government. If it couldn’t work here, why should anyone else bother? Besides, giving up after so much carnage would badly dishonor those who gave everything to free the slaves and preserve the Union.
Secession is an extreme undertaking that should never, ever be entertained – and the fact that it continues to be speaks volumes about how much we’ve lost sight of our own history and what the United States stands for – the influence it possesses. Everyone who’s proposing secession, a few liberals and many Red Hats, believes the end result would bring about a more peaceful and functional continent. If you believe that, take another look at American history between 1861 and 1865, and the long shadow of that brutal war.
That’s why we need to vocally shout down any talk of secession, no matter the source, while also framing it with the grave seriousness it deserves. It’s not a joke. It’s not an option. Ever. It’s intrinsically dangerous. The best use of democracy is to strengthen and preserve it, while pushing back against anyone who would rather exploit democracy to destroy it.
Read the latest for Banter Members and get 60% off a Banter Membership. Banter Members get access to all premium articles, The Emergency Meeting podcast, and exclusive Member chat threads. The Banter is 100% reader funded and costs less than a cup of coffee each month, so sign up now and support independent media. Thank you!:
For Banter Members:
Tucker Carlson's Dominion Text Messages Brutally Expose The Fox News Fraud
Carlson’s text messages aren’t just incriminating, they undermine the entire basis of his persona, and Fox News's.
by Ben Cohen
In November 2020, Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News for $1.6 billion. The lawsuit alleged that Fox News spread false claims about Dominion and its role in the 2020 presidential election, causing irreparable damage to the company’s reputation.
The lawsuit alleges that Fox News hosts and guests made false statements about Dominion, including that its voting machines were manipulated to switch votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden, and that the company has ties to Venezuela, Cuba, and China. Dominion asserts that these claims are baseless and defamatory. Fox News has argued that its coverage of Dominion and the 2020 election was protected by the First Amendment, and that it was reporting on a matter of public concern. However, Dominion aims to prove that the network acted with actual malice, meaning that the network knowingly spread false information.
The ongoing lawsuit has taken a dramatic turn with the recent release of text messages sent by several of the network's high-profile hosts…
Continue reading here.